Greens to start costing policies: Bandt

The Australian Greens' new policy platform will give voters more information on what the party stand for and how they'll fund their ideas, acting leader Adam Bandt says.

Mr Bandt says the minor party wants to go to the next election able to tell voters they have a fully-costed set of policies.

"To date, our policy platform contained a number of specific measures, but we hadn't had the resources or the capacity to have those costed," he told reporters on Thursday.

"Treasury wouldn't cost them for us and there wasn't an independent body that would do it.

"So what we now have is a very strong policy platform that has been voted on and determined by our members by consensus."

Mr Bandt said the Greens would now be going to the next election on the same footing as the two major parties.

"Everyone can ask us the same questions they ask other parties, namely how much will our initiatives cost and where will the money come from?" he said.

"So our updated policy platform, together with the new parliamentary budget office, will allow the Greens to go to the next election as the most economically responsible party out of all the parties contesting the election."

The Greens would be the only party to have the courage to stand up to big business and raise the revenue needed to fund the services that their voters expected, he added.

"We will also be the only party reaffirming those core principles of social justice and looking after the environment and looking after people," he said.

"This isn't about changing direction, it's about paying more attention to making sure the numbers add up."

He also outlined several ways the Greens would raise money, including increasing the mining tax so that it would "actually start raising the money that it should raise".

"We're having a look at how we can give a benefit to small business while making big business pay their fair share," he said.

The party's members had indicated a clear direction on where they wanted the Greens to head, including a universal health care system and making sure everyone had access to good quality education.

"This is going to mean voters will have more information on what the Greens stand for and how we'll fund our policies."

This material is subject to copyright and any unauthorised use, copying or mirroring is prohibited.